TUNIS: Algeria and Mali surprised observers by announcing the return of their ambassadors and the reopening of their airspace to one another, following more than a year’s rift triggered by Algiers shooting down a Malian drone.
Here’s what we know about the sudden rapprochement.
RUPTURE TO RAPPROCHEMENT
Relations between Algiers and Bamako deteriorated sharply in April 2025 after Algeria shot down a Malian drone it said had violated its airspace.
Following the incident, Mali and its Alliance of Sahel States (AES) allies Burkina Faso and Niger withdrew their ambassadors to Algeria — and Algiers responded in kind.
The dispute also rekindled older disagreements between the two neighbors, particularly over the 2015 Algiers peace accord between Bamako and armed groups in northern Mali.
Algeria had helped broker the deal, but Mali’s military government, which came to power following a pair of coups in 2020 and 2021, abandoned it in 2024.
Tensions worsened in April this year when Mali backed Morocco’s sovereignty claim over Western Sahara, where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front.
While the rapprochement announced by the neighboring countries earlier this month came as a surprise, a Malian diplomat told AFP that it had been in the making for months.
“The thaw was already under way,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Mediation by Togo and Niger had taken place before Russia became involved, he said. And Malian figures with ties to Algeria also helped drive the dialogue.
Another diplomatic source told AFP that Russia had “strongly advised Mali to improve its relations” with Algeria, given “it’s a fact that the separatist rebels are mainly near the Algerian border.”
Michael Ayari, a researcher at the International Crisis Group (ICG), said “the most likely hypothesis” was a mediation led by Niger that resulted in direct contact between Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Malian leader Assimi Goita.
WHY NOW?
According to the Malian diplomat, recent fighting in northern Mali’s village of Anefis had helped speed up the rapprochement. “Everything happened very quickly,” he said.
“Algeria asked the Russians for Mali to make a gesture, which was done the same day,” the diplomat added, referring to the return of the ambassadors and the reopening of airspace between the countries on July 10.
Algerian newspaper El Watan highlighted that, for Algiers, “stability in northern Mali is a direct national security issue.”
Any increase of violence in northern Mali carries “the risk of armed groups, trafficking and criminal networks operating along a border that is particularly difficult to control,” El Watan wrote.
FULL NORMALIZATION?
Ayari said it remained too early to describe the breakthrough as a full normalization of relations between Algiers and Bamako.
He said the disagreements that have built up since Mali’s military took power by way of coups remain largely unresolved.
Mali had accused Algeria of supporting “international terrorism” and being lenient toward some armed and separatist groups operating in its north, while Algeria would at times refer to Malian leaders as mere “putschists.”
It remains unclear whether some of these disputes have been resolved, said Ayari, adding that the latest thaw appears to be a pragmatic move, similar to Algeria’s recent improvement in ties with Niger and Burkina Faso.
But, he said, the turnabout with Mali could nonetheless mark the beginning of a broader easing of tensions with the AES countries.
“The dialogue is there, but now it has to continue,” he said.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
In a report, the ICG warned that the discord between the two countries had only “weakened cooperation between the two neighbors at a time when Mali faces growing threats from both separatists and jihadists.”
It also pointed to common interests between the countries.
“The two countries have long portrayed themselves as ‘brothers’ in the struggle against French colonial rule, and the borderland peoples, mostly Tuaregs, are bound together by strong family, cultural and economic ties,” the report said.
But the real test begins now, observers say, as questions over concessions made and how the two countries came to mend fences quickly linger.
One priority for the neighbors is restoring cross-border security cooperation and intelligence sharing, said Ayari.
The rapprochement “is a great start,” said Ayari, “but a relapse cannot be ruled out.”
